These brown butter banana chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, and taste just like banana bread in cookie form! They're similar to my classic chocolate chip cookies but with the addition of tons of banana flavor and chopped pecans!
You might also like these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or these banana pudding cupcakes!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few ingredients to make these chewy banana chocolate chip cookies!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. Best of all, brown butter pairs beautifully with the dark chocolate and pecans. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
Ripe Banana - You just need one super ripe brown banana for these banana bread cookies! A small to medium banana will yield about ¼ cup of mashed banana which is all you need.
Banana Extract - This is totally optional and I usually don't bother, but if you want even more banana flavor in these cookies you can add a tiny bit of banana extract!
Chocolate Chips - If you like dark chocolate, I highly recommend the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips. The flavor is amazing and the baking chips are slightly larger and flatter than normal chocolate chips and melt beautifully inside your cookies. But just use whatever chocolate chips you prefer!
Pecans - Roughly chopped, unsalted pecans are best for this recipe. But you could also substitute walnuts, almonds, or just leave out the nuts if you prefer!
Flaky Sea Salt - There's nothing better than a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top of warm banana chocolate chip cookies!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Browning the butter is technically optional but the extra time is SO worth it! The biggest problem I see people run into when using brown butter in cookies, is not letting the butter cool completely to room temperature before adding it to the dough. So I highly recommend browning the butter the night before you want to make these banana cookies.
Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and banana extract and beat until the texture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes, it should look much paler than before).
Then mix in the mashed banana until just combined.
Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the dark chocolate chips and pecans.
Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. If desired, press extra chocolate chips into the tops of the dough balls.
Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place dough balls at least 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet (they will spread, I usually only do 6 cookies on a half sheet pan).
Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Sprinkle the banana chocolate chip cookies with flaky sea salt and enjoy!
Why do I have to chill the dough?
Chilling the dough is super important for a few reasons!
First, letting the dough rest gives the flour time to hydrate. Eggs and mashed banana are the only liquid in these banana bread cookies and it takes flour a long time to absorb that moisture. When the flour is hydrated it helps contain the spread of the cookie so that you get a nice set edge and soft, chewy center.
Similarly, the brown butter needs to be as cold as possible before baking so that the cookies don't spread too much.
But don't we want the cookies to spread? Yes, we do and they will. We just don't want them to spread too much because then you get a flat, dry cookie instead of one with a soft, chewy center.
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Recipe FAQ's
Store the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Yes! Freeze the pre-rolled banana cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, once frozen transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 6 weeks. The frozen cookie dough can go straight from the freezer to the oven, just add 2-3 minutes to the cooking time.
Nope! You can regular unsalted butter if you prefer! I just love the way the brown butter pairs with the banana and chocolate chips!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ¼ cup ripe banana , mashed (about 1 small banana)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon banana extract, optional
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup pecans, chopped
- flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and banana extract and beat until the texture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes, it should look much paler than before). Then mix in the mashed banana until just combined.
- Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
- Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the dark chocolate chips and pecans.
- Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. If desired, press extra chocolate chips into the tops of the dough balls.
- Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place dough balls at least 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet (they will spread, I usually only do 6 cookies on a half sheet pan).
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Sprinkle the banana chocolate chip cookies with flaky sea salt and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.